Civics Unit 2 Vocabulary

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Age of Enlightenment

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1685-1815, Period where politics, science and philosophy were reoriented.

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Charter

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A written grant from a legislature or sovreign power

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Parliament

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a meeting or assembly for conference on public or national affairs

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Compact

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official agreement made by 2 or more parties

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Stamp Act

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an act of the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. Colonial opposition led to the act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the British Crown.

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Declaratory Act

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The American Colonies Act 1766 (6 Geo 3 c 12), commonly known as the Declaratory Act, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765 and the changing and lessening of the Sugar Act.

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Townshend Revenue Act

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A series of measures introduced into the English Parliament by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend in 1767, the Townshend Acts imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea imported into the colonies.

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Quartering Acts

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Quartering Act is a name given to a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament in the local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations or housing. It also required colonists to provide food for any British soldiers in the area.

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Loyalists

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a colonist of the American revolutionary period who supported the British cause.

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Patriots

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a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.

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John Locke

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A seventeenth-century English philosopher.Locke argued against the belief that human beings are born with certain ideas already in their minds. He claimed that, on the contrary, the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) until experience begins to “write” on it.

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Thomas Hobbes

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English materialist and political philosopher who advocated absolute sovereignty as the only kind of government that could resolve problems caused by the selfishness of human beings (1588-1679)

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist whose treatises and novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and the Romantic generation.

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Glorious Revolution

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The Glorious Revolution, also called theRevolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange).

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English Bill of Rights

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The Meaning and Definition of the English Bill of Rights: The 1689 English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689 that declared therights and liberties of the people and settling the succession in William III and Mary II following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James ...

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Common Law

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the body of English law as adopted and modified separately by the different states of the US and by the federal government.

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Jamestown

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Jamestown definition. The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 in Virginia. Jamestown was named for King James I of England. It was destroyed later in the seventeenth century in an uprising of Virginians against the governor.

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House of Burgesses

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the lower house of the colonial Virginia legislature.

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Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

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The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council on January 15, 1639 OS (January 24, 1639 NS). The ordersdescribe the government set up by the waters of Connecticut. ... It was a Constitution for the colonial government of Hartford and was similar to the government Massachusetts had set up.

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Declaration of Independence

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the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies,[2] then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule

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Articles of Confederation

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the original constitution of the US, ratified in 1781, which was replaced by the US Constitution in 1789.

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Constitutional Convention

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In September 1786, at the AnnapolisConvention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787.

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Virginia Plan

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The Virginia Plan (also known as the Randolph Plan, after its sponsor, or the Large-State Plan) was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

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New Jersey Plan

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The New Jersey Plan (also widely known as the Small State Plan or the Paterson Plan) was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787.

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Constitution

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a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed.

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Magna Carta

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a charter of liberties to which the English barons forced King John to give his assent in June 1215 at Runnymede. 2 : a document constituting a fundamental guarantee of rights and privileges.

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Mayflower Compact

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An agreement reached by the Pilgrims on the ship the Mayflower in 1620, just before they landed at Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower Compact bound them to live in a civil society according to their own laws.

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Due Process

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fair treatment through the normal judicial system, especially as a citizen's entitlement.

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Rule of Law

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the restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws.

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Limited Government

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A limited government is a political system where the legalized force is restricted through delegated and enumerated powers. The United States Constitution, for example, was designed to limit government'srole to its core functions: to preserve individual liberty and protect private property.

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Self-Government

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government of a country by its own people, especially after having been a colony.synonyms:independence, self-rule, home rule, self-determination, sovereignty,autonomy, nonalignment, freedom

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Continental Congress

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The Continental Congress, also known as the Philadelphia Congress, was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies which became the governing body of the United States (USA) during the American Revolution. The Congress met from 1774 to 1789 in three incarnations.